Life and Long-Term Care: The Combo Strategy that’s Gaining Popularity

We have seen the trend ourselves, and the recent LIMRA study confirms it; growth in the life with long-term care (LTC) combo arena continues to be impressive. Double-digit growth during four of the last five years is spectacular and worth noting for several reasons. Let’s looks at a few:

Selling life insurance is tough at times, and we are always looking for a way to make the sale more palatable for clients. Adding living benefits that they can use while alive is something to potentially turn the odds in your favor.

Many clients are more concerned about how to pay for LTC costs than needing life insurance, but a stand-alone LTC policy can be a hard sale. Such policies offer no guarantee that the premium will not increase; and if the cli-ents never need it, the entire premium is gone.

Your competition is selling it! Here are Davis Life & Annuity, 75% of our permanent life sales contain some sort of living benefit for either LTC or chronic illness. This trend will continue as clients see the value and want more bang-for-the-buck.

There are many ways these policies can be designed and funded, from single premium to continuous premium. Individual or Survivorship products can be used. Full underwriting and simplified underwriting are available. Do not let all the op-tions deter you; call us to help sort out the myriad products and options. We will help you find the best solution for your client. Here are two quick examples of how a combo product was used to secure the sale where traditional life wouldn’t have been enough:

The first case was a policy review for a 75 year-old female. The original quote, from another agent, did not contain a LTC benefit for her. She also balked at the idea of going through underwriting for only a slight increase in death bene-fit. My agent showed me the illustration, and I immediately presented a product which offered her access to 2% of the $450,000 death benefit per month for LTC ($9000 a month!) The client loved it. As a result, the agent placed a $40,000 target case.

The second case was for a husband and wife with $75,000 sitting in the bank. Both were 62 years-old and did not have a need for life insurance- no debt, mortgage paid off, kids were all grown, etc. The agent was originally looking at an annuity, but I showed him how to turn the $75,000 into a $300,000 death benefit that gave each of them access to $150,000 for LTC needs. He presented them with the annuity and then life…they took the life.

These are just two examples of how life insurance is no longer merely a product to protect a client’s beneficiaries after the client’s death. Today’s carriers, agents, and consumers are starting to realize life insurance is one of the industry’s best-kept secrets when it comes to ensuring LTC needs are provided for without sacrificing financial legacy. Davis Life & Annu-ity contracts with over 40 life and annuity carriers, so give us a call with your next case; you and your clients will be glad you did.